Socrates is philosopher par excellence. At least he is treated as such by the tradition. We are not going to disavow it. We would rather consider this enigmatic figure within the context, which is rarely taken into philosophical account - the context of the Socratic writings of Xenophon. We do not intend to look for the “historical” Socrates: such a project would be sure to fail. Socrates, who, due to the efforts of the historians of philosophy, especially in the XIX-th century, turned to be one of key figures of the European thought, was subjected to the interpretation, which became without exaggeration orthodox. As the result, we got a substitution: the Socrates of Plato, that is the Socrates who really was one of Plato’s disguise, was proclaimed the ‘historical’ Socrates. We find it extremely intriguing to consider the fictional Socrateses, let them (at least three of them who became “classical”) go on stage and get involved in a dialogue with each other. We would like to represent - within the framework of the theme as it is announced - the Socrates of Xenophon, ignoring the traditional judgement of him as a least potent, to be more precise - the most impotent thinker, a dull nerd, who propagates trite ideas full of common sense. Xenophon the Socratic always remained in the shadow of the main pupil of Socrates - Plato. Nevertheless Diogenes Laertius mentions him among the most prominent pupils of Socrates [DL 2.47.2]. His Opera Socratica, composed in the last decade of his life, appeared as an answer not only to Plato, but also to the other so-called Socratics. This answer was obviously polemical. What did Xenophon mean when he decided to represent Socrates? We are going to offer an answer to this question, rereading his main “Socratic” texts (the “Memorabilia” and the “Symposium”) and reconsidering the key themes, which were brought to light in these works. We propose to shift our point of view to gain another Socrates.
Translated title of the contributionLOOKING FOR SOCRATES: ON THE WAY OF XENOPHON
Original languageRussian
Pages (from-to)13-21
JournalВЕСТНИК РУССКОЙ ХРИСТИАНСКОЙ ГУМАНИТАРНОЙ АКАДЕМИИ
Volume21
Issue number4-1
StatePublished - 2020

    Research areas

  • Socrates, Xenophon, Plato, dialogue, Socratics

ID: 74703053